Thursday, November 1, 2012

Halloweiners

I fulfilled a long-time dream this year of proudly dressing myself and my family as the big nerds (slash big damn heroes) that we are for Halloween.

If you don’t know who we are dressed as, shame on you. A pox on your home and your herds! I’ve mentioned my love of Firefly plenty—if you haven’t watched it and the movie Serenity yet, you are missing out. It is my favorite show of all time.

It was a super easy costume to pull together—I found the coveralls on ebay a month or so ago (they came to about $20, including shipping), and picked up a pink and purple top at the thrift store. Toss in some boots, natural-looking makeup, and loose wavy hair, and you’re set.

Forrest was the star of the show (literally and figuratively) as a teeny Malcolm Reynolds:

His costume would have been cooler if he would have worn the holster and gun I bought for him, but you know how 2-year olds are (in case you don’t know: uncooperative). The hardest part of his costume was finding suspenders—not many stores sell them. I finally ran into some in an adorable little children’s boutique called Sunday’s Child in Cottonwood Heights (UT). I used RIT dye (color: Wine) on a plain white button-up from the thrift store since I couldn’t imagine finding a toddler-size maroon shirt. Knee-high boots would have been amazing, too, but it turns out they don’t make those for boys. Weird.

Jeff dressed as Jayne, but wasn’t home in time for pictures. Rest assured, he is the proud owner of a pretty cunning new hat, crocheted in haste during Forrest’s nap yesterday, completed just in time for trick-or-treating.

Without a doubt, the highlight of the day was tweeting a picture of our costumes and tagging Nathan Fillion (one of my many celebrity crushes, he played Mal on the show) and Jewel Staite (Kaylee!), both of whom were 110% awesome in replying to my tweet. JUST IMAGINE THE GEEK OUT WHEN I SAW THIS:

But when I called Jeff at work in a tizzy to tell him that Nathan Fillion and I are besties now, he didn’t answer . . . so I of course kept calling, over and over in rapid succession, until he finally picked up in a panic since he thought someone must be seriously injured or seriously dead for me to call 10 times in a row.

I maintain that the subject of my call really was that urgent.

A whopping 2 people knew who we were dressed as when we went trick-or-treating through our neighborhood, and I think the rest didn’t realize we were dressed up at all. It didn’t help that Forrest’s costume was nearly identical to his standard weekly church outfit, but let me tell you something: when the very actors that you are dressed as approve of your costumes on twitter, you stop caring what your neighbors think of your ensemble.

Also, Forrest’s understanding of trick-or-treating seems to be a simple one: some exchange of candy happens when a door is opened. He never figured out who was supposed to hand over or receive the candy, and generally tried to empty his treat bucket into our neighbors’ candy bowls when they opened their doors, and even offered licks of the lollipop he was already sucking to quite a few other kids, and also dogs.

General rundown of how our trick-or-treating went:

Forrest: (knocks super softly, usually with just one finger, so it's more of a gentle tapping)

Person opens door.

Forrest: Chi-o-cheeeeee! (while trying to get past the neighbor and enter their home)

Person: Aren’t you cute! Here you go. (holds out candy bowl)

Forrest: (reaches into his own candy bucket, pulls something out, places it in their bowl.) Dank you!

25 comments
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OMG OMG OMG, I love you so much for doing this!!!!! <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 And to have gotten a personal tweet. If you had called me I totally would have accepted the call first off AND screamed into the phone with you like the nerdy girl I am!

Oh my gosh, as soon as I saw the first picture I started freaking out! I LOVE the costumes! And I can't believe Nathan Fillion commented on your tweet. SO AWESOME!!!! Ok, I'm done geeking out now :) Great job!!!

I knew from the first sentence that you were someone from Firefly, though I still haven't watched it yet. (It's in the queue though!) Knowing how much you love this show, you can imagine my surprise that you didn't already have a Jayne hat lying around somewhere. Forrest looks adorable in those suspenders though, so it's ok that no one knew who you were. That just means that you were too awesome for the general populace. ;DReli was a My Little Pony and only 3 people knew who she was: a 6 yr old girl, a 20 something guy, and a 60 year old man!

Well, first of all, SHAME ON ME. I have heard great things about Firefly and have always wanted to watch it...it's just one of those things that we keep forgetting about, I guess. And I haven't seen Serenity, either! Double shame. Anyway, I am willing to bet that somewhere during Forrest's perusing the internet, he came across this video, hence the trick-or-treat confusion: http://www.collegehumor.com/embed/6843040/reverse-trick-or-treating That is pretty funny though!

Oh my gosh you and Nathan Fillion ARE besties!!!! That is so awesome, and I can't wait to tell my husband because he will geek out. Watch him suddenly get invested in Halloween costumes come next year . . .

Love firefly, love your costumes, LOVE that Nathan Fillion and you are besties (seriously, how cool is your life?!)! Also, your experience with Forrest is exactly why we were super boring parents and did not take our boys trick or treating. I'm pretty sure they would have cried at every door and refused to take candy from any one (they can be a bit timid around new people). Forrest is so good at sharing! What a stud!

Love it! The day I found out I was expectng a baby boy I crocheted him Jayne's hat. He arrived ahead of schedule and was actually here for Halloween, so he got to dress up as baby Jayne. Somehow the hat just made everyone think he was a cute little girl though. Whatever... at least they know he's not afraid of anything.

Omg, I laughed so hard at your story about Forrest Trick or Treating. Our trick or treat was moved to tomorrow because of Sandy, but I have a feeling our trick or treat experience is going to be the exact same situation with Connor!-Jen

Ok, too cool! I don't watch the show but I crush on him when I watch Castle. Secondly, Olivia went to the same School of Trick Or Treat, she was attempting quite a bit of reverse trick-or-treating. Except when we hit the point where she was tired, then she would yell "NO!" and try to throw back the treat, while the confused (generally also old) person at the door would be like ummmm...? and then hand me the candy looking apologetic while I chuckled slash yelled at my five year old to wait up. Good times.

My husband had told me for years I should watch Firefly and I always wanted to, but your post prompted me to look it up on netflix. I loved it! We finished it today, and are planning to watch Serenity after the kids go to bed tonight. I can't believe there was only one season!! (another amazing joss whedon show -dollhouse. Check it out if you haven't seen it)